How do you decide where to set your novel?

[Clair Dickson]

I was musing this the other day about my own work. I set it locally, largely because it's a moderately populated area that... well, that I know.

I couldn't write about big city life because I've never lived in a big city (and would rather chop of my right arm.) I've lived my entire life in Michigan, so I know the state pretty well. I do admit that I love that it's shaped like a mitten... but I'm a weenie. The stories don't require anything more than a setting that has people, houses, and whatever scene I need (like an abadoned house at one point.)

In fact, my novel could be moved just about anywhere and probably wouldn't lose much. (Other than local flavor since not a whole lot of books seem to be set in Michigan.)

What about the rest of you? How do you pick? How heavily does your plot rely on the setting?

:e2BIC:

[Reilly616]

For the purposes of my story I needed a very commercial area where gun restriction is low. Bingo, set it in America.

[Doogs]

My story is set in the 3rd century B.C., during the opening years of the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage. In this instance, locations were determined by actual historical events.

[RJK]

My first WIP required a particular place (the climax takes place at the brink of Niagara Falls). My second is part of a series, therefore...

[JamieFord]

If done well, the setting can almost be a silent character in your novel. Like the movie Fargo. You could transplant the story and plot to the deep south and it'd be a different movie.

I honestly think that if your story is too transportable, you're not digging deep enough.

[Bayley]

I'm writing a detective story and most of the information I know is about CID. Therefore it has to be set in the UK. I decided on London for a couple of reasons, mainly because I used to live there, it's the capital and it has one of the highest crime rates.

Setting isn't that important and I don't actually ever mention where it's set. And as long as it has houses, parks, apartments, detectives and serial killers, then it works. So while I'm giving a description of the city and describing its feeling and its attitude (yes Cities have attitudes), I want the readers to believe that it could happen on their doorstep.

[Toothpaste]

I'm an anglophile. Heck I moved to London UK and lived there for three years (and that doesn't include my first year of University when I was studying in East Sussex). I also consumed British books, and loved watching British films. For that reason all my settings have a slightly British flavour. But I either make up places, or never specify where it is the story takes place. Considering my stuff is far from realistic though, I can get away with it.

[Manderley]

With my current WIP, the setting and the genre was the first that came to me. The story and the characters only followed once I realized I wanted to use this particular setting.

The previous books have been set in my home town, simple because I didn't feel confident enough to use less familiar settings (I had enough struggle just figuring out how to get a character from one scene to another, let alone move them around in a town I weren't 100% familiar with).

[Charlie Horse]

I don't think I have a choice in the decision. My story usually chooses it for me. If all goes well, it's someplace I've been before.

[CaroGirl]

Mine is set first in a rural location outside the city where I live, and then right downtown. I know both areas well and feel I can represent them well without any particular research. My story depends on a fairly clear depiction of this particular geographic area.

[Stew21]

I set my story in Virginia (though I never come right out and say so) because I needed a tiny bit of wilderness, I needed my MC to make a drive all the way across the country to CA, and I needed him in relatively easy driving distance of Florida. Both drives are rather long, but it was essential to the story - he had to have access to seafood, and the drive across the country had to be arduous and I needed a couple of places along the way to be significant as well, so the driving path had go through particular towns.

[ClaudiaGray]

I set my first books in Massachusetts for -- no reason, really, save that they were set in an old, exclusive boarding school and, uh, they have those there.

One of the two maybe-ideas I'm working on now is set near Memphis, Tennessee, partly because I grew up near there and know the area and partly because I just have a really strong sense that the setting is Southern. The other maybe-idea could be mostly anywhere, but once I thought of a cool town name (Fortune's Sound), I knew I needed a lot of coastline -- so right now, it looks like Maine is the lucky winner.

[elissa]

I find it difficult to set my stories in a place I don't know very well, but at the same time, I don't really want to set it in my hometown, which is a very small city in Minnesota. Maybe it seems like if I put it in a real place where I spend much of my real time, and it's such a small real place that things would be easily identifiable? I guess I don't want readers who know me to be all, "Oh, she's talking about that one restaurant down on London Road..." Does that make sense?

So the only other place I've lived for any period of time is in Oregon, south of Portland, along the Willamette River valley. So I have a fictional city called New Valley, and that is where my stories are located.

[melaniehoo]

My story is about a Mexican trying to get into the US, therefore it takes place in Mexico. As for the exact cities, I asked around to find out what are considered "easy" border crossings.

[willietheshakes]

I tend to set mine where the story takes place. But then, I'm a little odd.

[a_sharp]

One of my stories started out in Chicago because I've been there several times and also spent a week in Naperville (when it was more country). But that was long ago and I realized I was stretching my experience thin, so I moved the setting to Pleasanton, California, where I never lived but often visited and overnighted. The change expanded my confidence in setting, circumstances, background, and a host of other abstractions that exist behind the words themselves. So I think it's something to consider if setting and culture have a large part in the story. Otherwise, you can pay a virtual visit to almost anywhere and make a plausible story.

Dean Koontz once wrote about his research for one of his books set in, I think, Singapore. Dean is a nit-picker for detail, and this characteristic apparently worked because a reader who had lived in that city complimented Koontz on the flavor of neighborhoods and the fact that the book put him right back there again. Koontz had never visited the city.

[Lady Cat]

My very first novel (which is gathering dust while I take a break from trying to figure out where I went wrong) needed to start out in a city. So I set it in a small city I used to visit a lot when I was a kid (I live in a small town).

Novel 2 (and its sequel novel 3) are paranormal and are not set in our reality. You'd think making up your own setting would be easier, but it's not. The setting is almost like a character itself and it keeps changing on me.

Novel 4, which is still in the planning stages, did not need a specific town or city, but it needed a coast with cliffs and high tides and specific marine life. I did research for that one until my eyes crossed. :D

[DeleyanLee]

Depends on the needs and demands of the story, every time. Especially since I write Historicals for the most part.

When I've done other genres (Fantasy, Romance, etc), then it was still the dictates of the story. If it really didn't make that much difference, then I selected a place that I was familiar with and infused that as part of the story. Always seemed to work.

Personally, I'd love to see some stories set somewhere in Michigan besides Detroit. It's a lovely state with so much more to offer than a single city.

[tehuti88]

Most of my stuff's set in Michigan too! :D Mainly because I live here and it's what I know...heh.

One series of mine takes place mostly in my hometown, partly in a city in North Dakota, a few in other places. The parts that take place here, it's mainly because it's what I know; a lot of it could probably be moved without affecting the plot much. The others are set in specific locations crucial to the main plot, so they couldn't be moved easily.

My current fantasy series takes place on a fictionalization of nearby Mackinac Island, and seeing as the location itself is a huge character, the plot depends almost entirely on location. (Even the series is named after the title Island.) I chose this location because I know it, I love it, and the story is based on the mythology of that region. Like I said, the location is a character.

Other stories of mine take place in ancient Egypt because that, too, was a subject of interest of mine, so of course they need to be set there.

So I guess location is often highly important in my work, if not because it's someplace I know, then because it's someplace I'm interested in.

[dwellerofthedeep]

It's almost always some kind of wierd world for me. Like a liquid sky, or a pillar universe. If I use a conventional planet it will probably be a city of some kind, but if I use Earth that city will have to be invented or at least have some reason for why it is not the same as it's real-life counterpart.

My plot usually has something to do with the setting, because my characters have to live there.

[Willowmound]

How heavily does your plot rely on the setting?

Completely. Place is important to me, and important to my stories. And now that you've made me think about it, I can see that this is one of my recurring themes. What is home, what is away, how do you connect, and why.

[aspiringwriter]

I personally would set mine in North Carolina since that's where I'm from. However it feels strange to mention places where I've been and such. But that's just me.

[Danger Jane]

They always come with places for me, just like they always come with characters. Sometimes it's because the story's based on a myth but it seems that's just how it is with me. Might be across an ocean or a country, might be three exits down the highway from me, but I know where my story goes when I know what it is. I do try to hold off writing until I've been there--so far just waiting on Ireland. Lucky I got to Greece when I did...hopefully I'll get back soon. And oddly, the setting I'm most nervous about nailing is the Real Town a few miles north, and it's not even much different from my own town...just a bit bigger and more industrialized, and maybe a little richer?

Setting to me is atmosphere. It's almost as much a character as the actual people in the story. Very important.

[Nakhlasmoke]

this question made me realise I never think about it (or if I do, my brain doesn't actually discuss this with me).

The stories are just set where they need to be set - Johannesburg, Cape Town, cities that don't exist.

[heyjude]

I picked the place I'd most like to live and set it there. We vacation there often ("research, honey!") and I've finally sold hubby on the locale. Two birds and all.

[Phaeal]

I have two major milieus:

One I have created. It has two key planets, linked by wormhole, so I've had a lot of fun mapping them and figuring out all the topographies, faunas, floras and societies.

The other is my own stomping grounds, ranging through Rhode Island and Massachusetts, centered in Providence and Edgewood, RI. Also part of this milieu are Lovecraft's fictional towns of Kingsport, Arkham, Innsmouth and Dunwich (all Massachusetts). I love the layers of history in these places, all of which still exist side by side: the colonial, the early industrial, the Victorian, the modern.

I find that knowing my setting well, either through intensive creation or through real-life living makes for much richer fiction. If I felt my story was easily transferable to another setting, I'd work harder to particularize it through the setting. I want that setting to be alive and unique, not generic.

[scheherazade]

I think this is where writing what you know is good. If you can write about the character of your local environment, it will make your writing all the better. If you do choose to write outside your locations of expertise, then at least call on your own environment to inspire it.

I live in Canada but I tend to locate a large portion of my novels in the U.S. (usually Michigan or New York, which are most familiar to me) because my stories revolve around the Canada-U.S. relationship, and because if you want to publish genre novels with U.S. publishers, it tends to be easier with a location that is either American or exotic - and Toronto is neither. :)

[Elodie-Caroline]

The main places, I set my novels, is in France. I am using Normandy at the moment, I use a lot of Paris, and I have used Marseilles and Nice too.
I do also use parts of the south of England and have used New York and Los Angeles in some of the same stories.

I don't think it's necessary to have to have lived, or even visited, a place to write about it and get the ambiance. If you have read enough books and seen enough films set in these place, then you know enough to write about them. Plus, I belong to a huge travel site and can soon find all the info I need on a place, either through looking at members travel pages of e-mailing them and asking what I want to know.

For my next novel, I am setting it in my home town though.


Elodie

[Shadow_Ferret]

How do you decide where to set your novel?

I guess it depends on where I am when I'm reading it. If I'm on the couch I'll set it on the arm rest. If I'm in the rocking chair, I'll set it on the coffee table. If I'm in the yard, I'll set it on the grass.

[Melenka]

My current WIP is set in a city. Pick a city, any city. They all have organized crime, drugs in nightclubs, run down areas, ultra rich and ultra poor, mixed-use neighborhoods, and industrial parks on the outskirts.

I haven't tried to set a story in a specific city, despite having lived in 3 major ones and spent far too much time in at least 5 others.

[maestrowork]

It depends on the story. Some stories can be set anywhere and I'd choose either the most interesting settings or familiar. Some stories call for specific locations -- e.g. my WIP is set during the Pacific War. I had to set it somewhere in the Pacific, right, instead of San Francisco or Ohio. What I don't know I'll have to research.

For my first book, it was a combination of different things -- places I know, and what make sense thematically. I chose two cities on the different sides of the Pacific. Well, duh, the book is called The Pacific Between. ;)

[Makai_Lightning]

When I get my ideas, I usually have at least one scene or mini scene in mind. At least one character, making at least one action, in one place. Without one of those, I can't have a scene, and it's harder for me to expand. Setting usually comes after I have a more concrete idea of the actions being taken, so I'd say I pick the setting based on what just makese sense for the action. I usually have to fill out the scenary later, but I can usually just have a basic setting in mind without a problem. For my recent piece, of the 3 major settings, only one could really be changed without changing the entire story. 2 were so central, I just couldn't have written it without them. The last, I would never change. I created a fictional city, and though I originally had no specific plan for it, I really makes the most sense for that part of the setting to be in a city, the way I describe it. I needed more anonomous crowds, and it worked better with apartments instead of full houses or a suberb with lots of space. I have another minor setting that's in the middle of nowhere, though, so....

I basically use what makes sense. Or at least, what makes the most sense to me. I mean, if I wanted to have someone on a subway, I couldn't very well place them mainly in a town, unless they already were out in a city somewhere for a good reason. If I wanted rolling hills and clean air, then I wouldn't go to San Francisco.

[IdiotsRUs]

This is why I write fantasy

Although Ruth Rendel didn't do too bad on basing her Wexford stuff near me.

[roseangel]

I set it where ever the story needs set, though most of the time, the location is a bit vague.
I write more fantasy than anything, so most of the settings are worlds I've built.

[Makai_Lightning]

I set it where ever the story needs set, though most of the time, the location is a bit vague.
I write more fantasy than anything, so most of the settings are worlds I've built.
I write fantasy as well.

Out of curiousity, where do you (and other fantasy writers that use their own worlds) get the inspiration for the setting? Do you use the sort of generic fantasy land (medeival europe-esque), or do you attempt to create your own? Or both? Or...well, any other way you do it.

I've used a more generic template, but my current almost-WIP (haven't written, stuck at outlining and character creation) was built of the idea of something more Indian (loosely), because it's a culture I thought would be interesting to explore.

So much fantasy doesn't explore so many other settings, and I've never quite gotten that. Not that generic fantasyland is bad, or everyone uses it, because neither of those are true, but I think it's cool to know where others get their fantasy worlds from.

[Linda Adams]

I set my urban fantasy in a fictional country that's part Hollywood, part Washington, DC. The setting is a big player in the story, since I wanted to mash together the insanity of both places and see what kind of scandals I could make up.

[ynoirb]

The setting for what I'm working on now is part where I grew up in Tasmania, part where I spent one NYE, part a town I used to visit often in country Victoria and the rest completely made up.

Sounds a lot more complicated than it is...at least I hope so!

[Mr. Fix]

I guess it depends on where I am when I'm reading it. If I'm on the couch I'll set it on the arm rest. If I'm in the rocking chair, I'll set it on the coffee table. If I'm in the yard, I'll set it on the grass.

I've never thought of doing that, I'll have to try doing that with my novel, Thanks Shadow_ Ferret!:ROFL:

[Mr. Fix]

I am an Advocate for wildlife and our wildlands. Therefore many of my novels will revolve around protecting the wild lands of our world.

So really - everywhere.

I intend on writing SF/Fantasy mostly, so I can make up what I want.

I want to write westerns too, so I'll cover the SW USA, an area that I've hitched-hike and covered over 20,000 miles. So I should be able to relate the 'feel' pretty well.

I have a couple of biographies I intend to cover, so area specific.

But then there's 'Habitat: Dreams of the Wanderer' about Northern Alberta, Canada. I've never been there (but I'd like to visit it someday) so I did extensive research on the area. Any beta readers from the Wood Buffalo Nat'l Park area in Alberta, Canada wanna test my research?
:e2writer::e2poke::thankyou:

[roseangel]

I write fantasy as well.

Out of curiousity, where do you (and other fantasy writers that use their own worlds) get the inspiration for the setting? Do you use the sort of generic fantasy land (medeival europe-esque), or do you attempt to create your own? Or both? Or...well, any other way you do it.



Primarily, I do a lot of basic world building, I have just the basic, very very basic, world set up, I write the first draft and then flesh out the world as I rewrite.
Though on occasion I have had a story that needed lotsa world building before hand, so I open up my fave game maker and play with it.
I draw inspiration from lotsa places, anime, books, games, movies, etc.

[HeronW]

Mine's in a rogh approximation of Earth/Eurasia but the Roman empire never happened. Other pantheons are in play and there's different technological areas depending on the people/land/resources.

[pointman]

Thinking about it, I can only say: wherever feels right. I don't even know how I choose some of my locations (from coastal Spanish territories to sub-Saharan Africa to Anytown, USA). Some stories just engender themselves to "fit" certain locations for one reason or another.

[Nakhlasmoke]

I write fantasy as well.

Out of curiousity, where do you (and other fantasy writers that use their own worlds) get the inspiration for the setting? Do you use the sort of generic fantasy land (medeival europe-esque), or do you attempt to create your own? Or both? Or...well, any other way you do it.
...


Interesting question.

I can spot the south africanisms in my fantasy world, but they're so deeply intermingled with a certain colonial feel that i doubt anyone would see them but me.

Also, the land is pretty much semi-desert, so you don't get that medieval European feel.

I don't think anyone could point to the land and say, that's based on Indian/Japanese/African culture though. I steal from everything that suits.

[Elodie-Caroline]

:roll:

I guess it depends on where I am when I'm reading it. If I'm on the couch I'll set it on the arm rest. If I'm in the rocking chair, I'll set it on the coffee table. If I'm in the yard, I'll set it on the grass.

[Makai_Lightning]

Primarily, I do a lot of basic world building, I have just the basic, very very basic, world set up, I write the first draft and then flesh out the world as I rewrite.
Though on occasion I have had a story that needed lotsa world building before hand, so I open up my fave game maker and play with it.
I draw inspiration from lotsa places, anime, books, games, movies, etc.
That sounds like a little bit of what do. I try to have a good idea of the setting beforehand, but I usually end up going back and fleshing it out more later. Kinda like the way I have to write fight scenes, because I suck at those. >.< At least, those are both things I never seem to get perfect on first edit.
Interesting question.

I can spot the south africanisms in my fantasy world, but they're so deeply intermingled with a certain colonial feel that i doubt anyone would see them but me.

Also, the land is pretty much semi-desert, so you don't get that medieval European feel.

I don't think anyone could point to the land and say, that's based on Indian/Japanese/African culture though. I steal from everything that suits.
Stealing from everything is good fun. I tend to pull from things lying in my mental consiousness that fit the feel I'm going for, I think. I don't think I could just pull from one place. I think it's really neat when people can pull varying things together so neatly the form something not so much the parts as it's own whole. Someone else reading your story could possibly notice parallels, but even if they don't, as long as the world's cool it's a great read. I tend to think it's easier to build something more cohesive when you can pull from all sorts of different facts and such.

[Cav Guy]

My settings are driven completely by character and plot. Usually when I come up with a character idea, I float it to see where he or she might fit in best. I tend to write either westerns or historical/military stuff (although I have messed with fantasy), and once the character "settles" into a specific niche the setting is determined.

My Westerns take place mostly (unless they're historicals) in a fictional county that I mapped and have developed a pretty extensive history for...kind of like what the fantasy writers here have talked about. Likewise, my fantasy setting is pretty detailed as well. Comes from my gamer background, I suspect. I have this thing about mapping out towns when I set a story in them.

[tehuti88]

Out of curiousity, where do you (and other fantasy writers that use their own worlds) get the inspiration for the setting? Do you use the sort of generic fantasy land (medeival europe-esque), or do you attempt to create your own? Or both? Or...well, any other way you do it.

So much fantasy doesn't explore so many other settings, and I've never quite gotten that. Not that generic fantasyland is bad, or everyone uses it, because neither of those are true, but I think it's cool to know where others get their fantasy worlds from.

Since most of my fantasy is based on mythology, I tend to use existing locations, or at least my own fantasy approximation of them. For example, I've never been to Egypt and I've CERTAINLY never been to ancient Egypt :D , so for my stories set there I use a fantasy version of ancient Egypt. Basically it's the same as what I've read ancient Egypt to be like. Except that is has gods and stuff hanging out all the time. :D And the gods themselves have their own version of ancient Egypt (Kemet) only with "Celestial" applied to the name. (So basically, there are "two" Egypts, a mortal one and a divine one.) Naturally, the "Celestial Kemet" has fantasy elements that I made up myself, but many are based on the culture and mythology, so they aren't generic fantasyland things that I just slapped into the story or could have taken from anywhere. A sun palace filled with talking hawks, or an underworld filled with giant snakes that try to destroy the sun when it passes through, wouldn't fit well into any generic fantasy story.

My fantasy set on a fictional version of Mackinac Island already has its universe in place, of course, though there are alternate dimensions and such that I had to create myself (for example, the Fairy Realm, the Spirit Land, the distant lands the characters visit, the realms underneath the Island, etc.). But again, much of this is based on the mythology and not created at random. Like the above, having a gigantic sky lodge in a land above the clouds where Thunderbirds dwell, or a giant tree where lives the spirit of the sky, wouldn't make much sense out of the context of the mythology used--even if that lodge or that tree aren't taken directly from the mythology.

In the cases where I do almost completely make something up, I still try to make it tie in somehow to the elements I take from mythology, so while the setting (or even characters or beings) may be 100% original to me, it still fits into the mythology's fantasy world the best that I can make it. Otherwise it seems woefully out of place.

I don't tend to just entirely create a fantasy land out of nothing. I wouldn't do well with it and it would probably end up too generic. But I think this is mainly because I write series stories in just a few storylines of my own creation, so I have no real need to make up an entirely new land. (I used to do it all the time when I was little, though.)

So basically, I either take an existing setting and modify it to make it my own, OR, I make my own setting, but use inspiration from real settings to make it more authentic. Either way, it's not 100% from my own head. :)

[dwellerofthedeep]

I love that kind of thing tehuti88. Personally I find working off an existing mythology a little restrictive so I generally go out of my way to do something that blends a little of one or two into a wierd world. However, the book I'm trying to sell now is post-apocalyptic not-quite Narnia-style Christian-Myth-based Fantasy.

[Shadow_Ferret]

I set my urban fantasy in a fictional country that's part Hollywood, part Washington, DC. The setting is a big player in the story, since I wanted to mash together the insanity of both places and see what kind of scandals I could make up.I set my urban fantasy in my hometown simply because I'm familiar with it. Although I never mention the city by name, if you are familiar with the place, you'd recognize many of the street names and landmarks, and get a good feel of the place.

[Wolvel]

Usually on the coffee table while I grab a---- oh you mean the setting.

I tend to set my stories in areas I am familar with. Such as the South where I'm from.

My fantasy work is easier since it is all made from scratch.

I do however make sure my characters fit the scene. Such as accent or manerisms common in that area.

[jdparadise]

Given that setting has both concrete and thematic uses...

Concrete:

The physical features of a scene help dictate the "business" of the scene. A quiet discussion in a state park gives you certain props to play with (fallen leaves, stones, lakes, trees, etc.) to show character traits; the same discussion alongside a basketball court gives other props.
The surroundings dictate the range of character actions. An argument in an office after hours, when no one is there and the lights are off, is a different beast than an argument in the same office when it's buzzing with people, and that's a different beast than an argument as a roller coaster is about to take off, and that's different still from an argument in a restaurant. Behavior in a setting can also show a lot about a character; someone who throws over the table in a restaurant is perceived a lot different from someone who sits there numbly staring.
Settings have logistical repercussions; if scene 1 is at the beach and scene 2 is in the mountains, that implies something about what has to happen between the two... so if I need a scene in each location and they have to be within ten minutes of one another, someone in that scene had better know how to teleport!
Settings can manipulate the reader; a discussion taking place in a drizzle sets up different resonances than a discussion in sunshine.Thematic:

Settings can be representative, either explicitly or implicitly, of inner processes in the characters. A scene taking place beside a dam can presage a character who is repressed. Probably best not to be -too- parallel, as the writer runs the risk of putting trains in tunnels as a metaphor for sex... but it's a useful tool, in moderation.
Similarly, settings can also illustrate story themes (the characters themselves should also do this) - a story whose theme is "forgiveness" could begin with scenes set in winter or a remote and dilapidated farmhouse or a barren desert, and by the end, as part of the characters' move toward embracing or rejecting forgiveness, our setting could be a more (or less) welcoming locale....it becomes pretty obvious pretty quickly that setting is enormously important. The right setting can add resonance and bring the story to life for the reader; the wrong one can not only serve no useful purpose, but actually accidentally mix messages. For example, if the reader is not supposed to experience the story's resolution with a sense of authorial irony, a joyous reunion in the middle of a funeral parlor is probably not the best choice. (On the other hand, joy in a funeral parlor may be -exactly- the message the writer is trying to send, so...)

Since IMO nothing in a story should, in the end, be accidental--everything in a story should be there because the author intends it, in the final draft if not the first--then it stands to reason that the writer should choose the characteristics of the setting as carefully as she chooses a character trait or a plot detail.

[dwellerofthedeep]

Excellent points jdparadise, it reminds me of one of the writing books I got.

[Clair Dickson]

jdparadise, I have to both agree and disagree with you. While setting can have enormous purpose within each scene, it does not necessarily have that much purpose in the larger context of the story.

While I may pick a rain night, with the raindrops sliding down the window and backlit by the orangey light of the parking lot street lights as a focused setting, in my story, it doesn't really matter that the scene is taking place in Michigan, or any other Small Town, USA. I give my locations importance by the story-- such as referring to Michigan laws and slang, but these locations by themselves can be accidental.

I appreciate your desire to construct a reality with your fiction.

I prefer to let my fiction unfold.

It's like the outlining vs. pansting debate Neither is more valid than the other. We each write how we each need to for who we are.

My setting was more accidental on the big picture, important as necessary on a smaller scale, and sometimes so far in the background that it's hard to say if it's sunny or cloudy outside. Perhaps this is unaccaptable to some readers, but I let the story determine the importance of whatever setting I happen upon.

Heck, maybe it's only fitting because I was created accidentally either. =)

[jdparadise]

While I may pick a rain night, with the raindrops sliding down the window and backlit by the orangey light of the parking lot street lights as a focused setting, in my story, it doesn't really matter that the scene is taking place in Michigan, or any other Small Town, USA. I give my locations importance by the story-- such as referring to Michigan laws and slang, but these locations by themselves can be accidental.


Hiya, Clair.

As someone who's set stories everywhere, with varying degrees of failure, I see your point. One expanded three-bedroom Cape is very like another, after all.

On the other hand, there's a reason a character "chooses" to live in an expanded three-bedroom Cape, and an expanded three-bedroom Cape in Michigan, and in the neighborhood they choose. They likely grew up in Michigan, or went to school there and fell in love, or found a job they couldn't find anywhere else. Or maybe it was just inertia; they found themselves in Michigan one day and never moved on.

Each of those things says something different about the character. Not to say you're wrong--I'm in no position to say that, and even if I were a famous writer and teacher I'd -still- be in no position to say that--but I've noticed that the more attention I pay to details like "Why is the character where she is? Why is this scene taking place here? What does this scene taking place in this location say about this guy?" the better I can make stories hold consistency, and the easier it is to write them.

For example, I live in a three-bedroom house; the front door opens to a high-ceilinged nubbin of the living room, which flows directly into a high-ceilinged kitchen, and wraps around to a high-ceilinged dining room conjoined to the rest of the living room.

My wife and I looked at literally scores of houses before we picked this one as our new home. The house we were leaving? This new one was a split, while the old one was a little summer cottage. But the old one had high ceilings, a little nubbin of a living room flowing into a kitchen, wrapping to a dining room and the rest of the living room. Never even -realized- it until we'd been living there about a year -- "hey, hon, did you realize that this house is the exact same layout for the entrance as we had in the old house?"

Most of the others were completely different, and something felt -wrong- about most of them. The fact that we neither of us were comfortable in most of these houses probably says a few things about us: we like stability, we like not feeling enclosed, we like ... oh, I don't know. I'm not going to psychoanalyze myself on the Internet :o). But those factors exist. Ditto the fact that we've stayed in our state despite really loving other areas we've vacationed in--the ameneties, the climate, the presence of friends, all mean something to us that overrules the annoyance of the traffic and the high prices. That says something about us, too, and it says something that we're staying in this particular state, in our particular town, in our particular neighborhood.

For me, ignoring this--saying that the same character would do the same things regardless of where that character grew up, spent time, lives, and is currently--that doesn't seem -right- to me, either as a reader or as a writer. Others mileage can and will vary :o)

[Pachydermia]

my settings are always a big part of my plot, and usually come to me along with a character or an idea.
one book though, I dunno what's going on or where it's going on- but I have a great MC, so...
yeah.

[Megaera]

Setting to me is as important as character and plot. I figure if I could set the book somewhere else I haven't done it right.

Current set of opuses (opii?) are set in Yellowstone National Park (a unique setting if ever there was one) in 1959, 1877, 1898, and 1959 again, as well as in Montana and on the way to the Klondike during the gold rush of 1898.

AAMOF, I first got the idea for the first book while watching a geyser erupt at Yellowstone.

Yup, setting is important, esp. when you write historical fiction as I do.

[Lyra Jean]

After reading this thread I just realized how important setting is in my current WIP, Seven Sisters. The story is the setting.

Seven multigenerational colony ships travel through space to the planet that Earth sent them to colonize. For generations the people have been born, lived, and died on their respective ship. They finally reach the planet they are supposed to colonize after traveling through space for 4,000 years. The conflict and point of the story is why should they leave the ships and move onto the planet just because some people on Earth said they should.

Some ideas on the stove top:

series of short stories set on I-75 in South/Central Florida

romance novel set in Washington DC during the War of 1812 and 2001 before, during and after 9/11. With a special focus on the Octagon House.

historical novel set in Germany during the high middle ages/ renaissance period when the Landsknecht were at their height.

[josephwise]

Setting dictates quite a bit, so I try to put a lot of consideration into it.

Hierarchically speaking, I consider setting to be ABOVE character. Character is a "sub-category" of setting, if you will.

You wouldn't run into the same kinds of people in New York, as you would in Darfur.

[dwellerofthedeep]

Oops wrong thread.

EDIT: I like designig a fresh setting almost as much as I enjoy writing stories altogether.

[auntybug]

My 2 novels are set on Maui. Its where I grew up and what I know. Its fun for me to put in hidden things for the reader of secret places that I knew.

[Alpha Echo]

For the purposes of my story I needed a very commercial area where gun restriction is low. Bingo, set it in America.

Oh ouch.

I am not sure. My first one I wanted a place I could go visit myself but not where I live. I wanted it to be not a big city and surrounded by nature. so I chose a place in PA but made up the actual setting. I just used a place in PA as a guideline.

My second book I wanted to start out...kind of...in a dirty, depressing place and end up in a beautiful place close to nature and far away from the city. If you knew my book, that would make sense. But I chose NY and Montana.

My third book I wanted land in a place I knew. So I chose a town kinda close by but further from the city than I am.

That probaby doesn't answer your question, but so far, that's all I got!